The European Union’s super-state aspirations have suffered a setback as Brussels realises its “ambassador” in Washington D.C. was downgraded without notice.
The EU has long sought the trappings of statehood, controlling its member-states’ international trade policy and territorial fishing waters, establishing a body of EU law superior to national law and upheld by an EU court, acquiring (another) highly-paid President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, and most recently setting out its long-term plans for a European military.
Its pride has been dealt a blow, however, by the realisation that the Donald Trump administration in the United States has downgraded its diplomatic status without notice — something it only realised when its so-called “ambassador” stopped being invited to certain important events.
“We don’t exactly know when they did it, because they conveniently forgot to notify us,” an EU official complained to German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
President Trump’s globalist predecessor Barack Obama awarded the EU’s representative in Washington that status of a nation-state ambassador — appearing to contradict the public position of British europhiles that the bloc is “just a trade club” — in September 2016.
The promotion was seen as a huge coup by the Brussels bureaucracy, and the realisation that they have been unceremoniously demoted back to international organisation status has “not been well received”.
“This is clearly not simply a protocol issue, but this is something that has a very obvious political motive,” a diplomat for one of the bloc’s member-state’s seethed.
“For us, [Obama] made this decision once and it was a well-thought-through decision — and now [Trump] sort of put it down again with a pen stroke,” an EU official added despairingly.
The EU has had a rocky relationship with Donald Trump since he entered office, with the American nationalist determined to help correct the massive trade imbalance between his country and the globalist-led bloc which has come about as a result of his predecessors allowing Brussels to impose far higher tariffs on American automobiles than EU automobiles face in the United States, among other things.
Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage, a confidante of President Trump, has said the EU has embarked on a “new cold war” with his administration, with its pro-sovereignty, strong borders policies being anathema to the prevailing opinion in Brussels.
The President appears to be unfazed by the EU’s apparent dislike, however, observing: “I’m elected by American taxpayers… If I were popular in Europe, I wouldn’t be doing my job.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.